This is a test.......

     Now that the hard work is over... the harder work begins! Keeping your site content fresh and functional is the key to acquiring repeat visitors. There are numerous examples of sites "slapped together" and uploaded to a server only to be abandoned. This article addresses some important testing and revision techniques that can help you to assess and maintain your web site.

USE MULTIPLE BROWSERS AND RESOLUTIONS

     Probably the single most important testing method, viewing your web site in several browsers will frequently yield some surprising results. You can freely obtain copies of many web browsers online. At a minimum, you should test your site in the two most commonly used web browsers... Netscape and Internet Explorer. Whenever possible, test your site in several versions of each browser as well (obtaining a 3.x and 4.x version of each browser is a good start). Each browser treats certain HTML tags and page elements differently. What looks good on your screen may look skewed or misaligned in another browser. There are certain design techniques you can use to make your pages "adapt" to varying screen resolutions like setting table widths to "auto" rather than fixed dimensions. However, this approach will only take you so far... notice in the following example how the same web site looks in two different resolutions.

At 800x600, the header graphic is completely visible, as well as the page title and graphic.   At 640x480. About 1/5 of the header graphic is cut off and the page title and graphic are only half visible.

     Along these lines, check your site in several screen resolutions as well. While typical screen resolutions vary, there are still many smaller monitors (640x480) in use today. These are being replaced by larger monitors with an average resolution of 800x600. While it is virtually impossible to meet the configuration needs of every possible viewer, if you can accommodate these two resolutions you are probably ahead of the game. There are a couple of ways you can check your pages in different resolutions. You can actually adjust your computer screen display properties (resizing your desktop if you use Windows) and take a look at the pages in a browser. Another easier way to get a quick look is to simply resize the browser window while viewing the web page. As the elements adjust to the reduced screen area, you'll get a good idea of how they will display in a smaller screen.

   Yet another approach to the testing phase is to have friends or associates take a look at the web site from different computer and browser configurations. You might be surprised at how your web site displays in an AOL web browser for instance. Having others check your site is an easy way to not only check the layout of the web site but to also check the less tangible aspect of "getting your message across". More on this later...

CHECK ALL IMAGE AND TEXT LINKS

     As mentioned earlier, it is essential that you check (and in the case of "external" links... recheck!) all image and text links on your web site periodically. Many web sites utilize icons, banners, and other graphics that actually reside on other servers. In addition, virtually every web site has at least a few "links" to other sites. You should test all external links at least monthly and check all internal links and images after every major site update. As an example, you may have a web site that features a gallery of your digital art work. If you fail to "path" your images correctly within your server directory, your beautiful pictures are most likely going to look like one of the broken link images to the right.

     Here's another look at the web site displayed at the beginning of this article. This time with a few missing image links. Since the main menu was designed as an image map in the header graphic, the visitor is at a loss as to the site content or navigation (even though it looked fine in your HTML editing program). Without any ALT tags, there is not even an indication of what "should've been" displayed. Not very informative, is it? As mentioned earlier, a common mistake is to path the images incorrectly. If you use an HTML editor and pull images from your computer hard drive while building pages, make sure the path to your images is the same on your remote server! An easy method of fixing this little problem is to "mirror" the working directory structure from your computer on the remote directory of your server. If you store all of your images in a directory called "pictures" on your computer... create a directory called "pictures" on your remote server and then upload those images to the remote directory! A simple but effective technique in most cases. Next, we'll take a look at the part that user feedback plays in the testing and revision process.

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